Relaxing in the Papallacta Hot Springs (Tuesday, December 26th, 2017)

We have loved our time here in the rain forest!  It is one of those places that draws you in and dares you to take a closer look at everything around you.  It is intriguing, scary and completely tranquil all at the same time. 

It was raining hard this morning, which gave me a little more time before breakfast to take in the views just one last time before saying goodbye to the amazing place.

I decided to take the time to climb up to the top of the dining room.  It is three floors with an observation deck on top that offers fantastic views of the entire Napo River valley.

And the dining room itself is just really interesting to look at.

I could see most of the hotel from up here.

Then I headed down stairs, we checked out of our room and headed to breakfast.  I have really enjoyed the healthy breakfasts here, but probably my favorite thing was the home made plain yogurt.  They also had some flavored with fruits, but I really like plain with a little granola or oats.  

Today I treated myself to something very special.  Being that we are in the chocolate capital of the world, they had chocolate sprinkles on the breakfast bar each morning.  (They were supposed to be for the fresh made donuts), but I decided that since this was the last morning, I was going to add some of them to my yogurt and oats. Oh My Gosh!  I have never tasted chocolate this good ever in my life!  I should have been eating these every morning and just skipping all the rest of my meals for the day!!!!

After I came off of my chocolate high, we jumped into our canoes for the last time and headed to the point where the bus dropped us off two days ago.

We are really going to miss these canoes.  They are amazing for getting around on the river.

As we crossed over the river in the bus, there were some fishermen out fishing in the rain.  I guess that when you live in the rain forest, you just learn to do everything in the rain.

As we were stretching our legs at one of the rest stops, we were talking to Sergey and Yanna who said that they brought tea tree oil instead of full on bug spray, and they were really regretting their decision.  Sergey said he hadn't gotten much sleep in 2 nights because his legs were so itchy from all of his bites.  I wish we had known sooner so we could share our deet based spray with them.  He was covered in bites and looked miserable.

More beautiful views as we left the rain forest and made our way back toward Quito, Ecuador.

A rough spot in the highway. 

We passed this truck on the road.  He was taking his donkey out for a stroll I guess, it was tethered to the truck with a rope as they rolled down the road.

Shortly after we went back over the pass of the Virgin, we turned off the highway and drove through the little town of Papallacta.  This town is at about 10,000 feet, so it is cool and misty most of the time.

Our reason for coming to this little town is their well known hot spring pools.

When we checked in at the hot springs, they gave us our locker key and a bathing cap to use while we are here.  The locker rooms were very nice and had lots of completely private, very nice showers available as well.





There were pools of all different sizes and temperatures to choose from, and the grounds were gorgeous!

Such a styling family!

Then it was time for some lunch.



More magic aji sauce.  The Ecuadorean people love this stuff and so do we!

When we finished lunch, we jumped back on the bus for the remained or today's trip.  Our final destination in Ecuador was the Quito airport.  

Taking a little reprieve before we had to face the crowds again.

At the Quito airport, we had to say goodbye to our beloved guide Giovanna, who took such great care of us while we were in Ecuador and taught us so many great things about her country.  We will truly miss her!  

From Quito we flew to Lima, Peru where we will spend one night at the Costa Del Sol Wyndham before moving on again. 

This was one of the more exhausting days of our trip so far with five hours of driving followed by the short flight from Quito to Lima.  It was so nice to stop at the Papallacta Hot Springs to unwind and relax for awhile.  It really helped to break up the trip!

Canopy Adventure (Monday, December 25th, 2017)

Our morning Christmas hike was really fun, so we are super exited to go on our canopy adventure this afternoon.  We're not really sure what all it entails, but we're definitely ready for the challenge.  At least we think... 

This is the only optional excursion we signed up for on this trip and ir was $19 per person.  It sounded like a bargain, so we'll see what we get for our money.

The hotel is very green, and doesn't provide any water bottles that they would then have to dispose of, or worse, they could end up in the river or rain forest, but they did provide this big jug of cold water for refills every morning and afternoon. 

After filling our bottles, we again headed down to the boot room to grab our boots for our canopy adventure.  They told us that we would need our boots in addition to a good pair of all terrain shoes.

We actually went through town, which is back behind the hotel, to get to our canopy fun, instead of taking the river.  We didn't even know that this was a thing until just now.  But Dario said that it's a long way to anywhere by road, so most of the town people still use the river to get around for the most part.

Our transportation was waiting for us.  Two in front, and the rest in back.

We made our way through town and got to see all that was happening with the locals.

Our destination wasn't far down the road, probably 10 minutes or so.

Dario told us that we would have another hike.  It would only take 20-30 minutes at a quick pace, but it was much steeper than this morning's hike. So off we went.

Within about 5 minutes, we came across a group of tamarind monkeys playing in the trees.  We stayed and enjoyed their fun demeanor and watched them swing through the forest canopy for awhile before we continued on.  I dare you to try and find them in the next few pictures.  They are tiny little monkeys, so they are very hard to see.

Next we came across a baby coral snake.

When they are threatened, they flare up their tail to confuse their predator.  The predator will go after their tail, thinking it's their head.

When we finally got to the top, we could see how steep our hike really was.  The views were breath taking!

They had a little outhouse at the top of the hill by the obstacle course.  When we opened the door, we found this cute gecko sleeping on the door.  We just let him sleep.

Our canopy adventure guide taught us all how to put on our harnesses.

All saddled up and ready to go!

We had to go through a training course first to make sure that we understood how the smart clamps work.  One is always open, and one is always closed.  That way you can never accidentally unhook both of the clamps at once while you are up on the canopy.  

I have a definite fear of heights, but the smart clamps made me feel a lot better about what our children got me into. 😲

Once we passed the test on the training course which was pretty close to the ground, we were allowed to continue on to the real course.  I honestly thought this was going to be a zip lining adventure, but I quickly learned that it is an obstacle course with a few zip lines in the middle.  

This is where the real adventure began.  Our guide was kind enough to crawl around and take pictures of us as we tried to navigate our way through the maze.

The look of concentration on my face is hysterical!  I was a little petrified most of the time.

The canopy adventure was amazing, and showed me that I can do whatever I put my mind to.  There were times up there in the canopy that I literally had to tell my self...move that foot to that board, then switch hands and reach.  My body couldn't do it automatically, it was just too scary!  Our son (in-law) and our daughter's boyfriend went through the course several times.  I could only make it through once, my knees were shaking too hard.  There was one man that had to be rescued while we were there, he just couldn't make himself go on.  So it made me very happy and excited that everyone of us made it through the entire course at least once.  We are all a bunch of rock stars!

There was a little pool of water right next to the course, and as we finished up, there was a poisonous dart frog sitting next to the pool.

As we looked more closely, we realized that she was carrying babies on her back.  This was super cool to see!

We were so glad that we chose the canopy adventure as our optional tour.  This was an experience that we wouldn't have missed for the world!!!!